Bach Perspectives: Bach Perspectives, Volume 12 (ePub)

Johann Sebastian Bach was a Lutheran and much of his music was for Lutheran liturgical worship. As these insightful essays in the twelfth volume of Bach Perspectives demonstrate, he was also influenced by—and in turn influenced—different expressions of religious belief. The vocal music, especially the Christmas Oratorio, owes much to medieval Catholic mysticism, and the evolution of the B minor Mass has strong Catholic connections. In Leipzig, Catholic and Lutheran congregations sang many of the same vernacular hymns. Internal squabbles were rarely missing within Lutheranism, for example Pietists' dislike of concerted church music, especially if it employed specific dance forms. Also investigated here are broader issues such as the close affinity between Bach's cantata libretti and the hymns of Charles Wesley; and Bach's music in the context of the Jewish Enlightenment as shaped by Protestant Rationalism in Berlin. Contributors: Rebecca Cypess, Joyce L. Irwin, Robin A. Leaver, Mark Noll, Markus Rathey, Derek Stauff, and Janice B. Stockigt.|
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Historical Proximity: John Wesley Visits Leipzig in 1738 BY MARK NOLL
Dancing in Bach's Time: Sin or Permissible Pleasure? BY JOYCE L. IRWIN
A Catholic Hymnal for Use in Lutheran Leipzig: Catholisches Gesang-Buch (Leipzig, 1724) BY ROBIN A. LEAVER
Liturgical Music for a New Elector: Origins of Bach's 1733 Missa Revisited BY JANICE B. STOCKIGT
Bach's Christmas Oratorio and the Mystical Theology of Bernard of Clairvaux BY MARKUS RATHEY
The Church under Persecution: Bach's Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany BY DEREK STAUFF
Music Historicism: Sara Levy and the Jewish Enlightenment BY REBECCA CYPESS
Contributors
General Index
Index of Bach's Compositions|Robin A. Leaver is an emeritus professor of sacred music at Westminster Choir College, Princeton; honorary professor at Queen's University, Belfast; and a recent visiting professor at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. He is the general editor of The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach.